The Letter
by KarismaJulian4Ever
Summary: Teddy writes that fateful letter to Emily...but a whole new twist and take on it.


_**A/N**: Hey everyone, I was kinda inspired to do a redo for Emily's Quest. A change in plotline. Say Emily DID get the letter Teddy sent her…but it might not be in the way yo think  Enjoy and I hope you like it. Please review…_

Teddy Kent was never a consummate writer. To be sure, he wrote charming epistles jam-packed with news of his doings to his friends and his mother weekly. He also penned the framed short, concise descriptions located below next to his paintings that gave the viewer a clear idea of what he wanted to convey.

But tonight, as the fire burned and sparks flew left and right, he needed the words that would convey what he had wanted to say for so long. Teddy trembled slightly at the thought. Emily would finally know what he had yearned to tell her. When he had attempted to before, it seemed as if anything that could go wrong went wrong. But tonight would be the night where at least the feelings inside of him would be burned onto pieces of paper---finally, physical proof of his love for Emily.

In so little time, so much had happened.

When he first heard about Emily's flirtations via the post, he gave little credence to them. After all, he assumed, in a somewhat arrogant fashion, Emily was his. Always would be. But when he heard of Emily's engagement to the Vincent fellow, shock almost overwhelmed him.

He had casually interacted with Vincent once or twice, but never assumed that he would be the type of fellow Emily would take up with. That was when the first seedlings of doubt started to germinate. Maybe Emily was not unequivocally his after all. But then, the truth, by way of Ilse, had reached him. No, there had been nothing. Perhaps Emily's over-romanticism of the situation was to blame. After all, as Ilse said, Emily was hopelessly Victorian.

But then came the news of Dean. Reputable sources confirmed what Teddy most dreaded and hated. Dean and Emily's engagement. Away in France, he had read letter after letter about Dean's constant company to Emily after her accident. But he was helpless. In a moment, he would have been at Emily's side. But the scholarship and the threat of losing it kept him there.

And it meant thereby losing Emily. The engagement, or the realness of it, had almost cost Teddy everything. For weeks after, he was pale, distraught and could not seem to put his brush to his easel. His scholarship adviser then took him aside, and told Teddy in no uncertain terms, that Teddy would lose the scholarship if he did not start doing what he was told. So Teddy forced himself to paint again. Paint anything but what he was most talented in—painting beautiful women. He feared that if he were to, his paintings would only reflect Emily. And he could not risk thinking of her. Not when she belonged to Dean.

Teddy never liked Dean, and he strongly suspected the feeling was mutual. Of course he was grateful for the occasional book of art that Dean tossed in his way. But even as a young boy of fourteen or fifteen, Teddy saw the mocking assessment in Dean's eyes and knew instinctively that Dean viewed him as a rival for Emily's affections. But Teddy ignored this. After all, Dean was so old. Old enough to be Emily's father. There would be little chance that she would see Dean in any other way.

But apparently Teddy was wrong.

When he was finally given the elusive chance to go home to P.E.I. Island, he immediately took it. A part of him dreaded seeing Dean and Emily together, but another part of him hoped that if he were to come home, perhaps he would see that life for Dean and Emily was not as rosy red as they might all have thought.

But when he was about to board _The Flavian_, he saw Emily. She only beckoned to him and turned away. "Teddy, come," she said as she caught his sleeve and dragged him away. But then she drifted away, and he chased her. Teddy looked up and down and around the ship deck for her. And then realized that he had lost his passage on the ship. Initially, he was furious. However, when he got the news that _The Flavian_ had sunk, he was stunned.

Stunned enough to finally write another letter to Emily after so long, detailing what exactly had happened. And now he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that regardless of the circumstances, Emily was his. This letter contained none of the stiffness or the lack of soul of the other letter he had wrote to her shortly after her accident. Instead, he wrote it to convey his disbelief of what had happened and gave her a not-so-subtle hint of what he wanted to say when he saw her.


End file.
